New Delivery Mechanism

This the second copy of the Bleat for this week which is being sent out using the IMG Registration system.

If the IMG EMail address is not correct please go to the IMG system, login and update your Email address. Use this link. Login details should have been sent when you renewed your membership

Also, if you could let me know if there are any problems with the way this EMail displays in your EMail client.

Thanks,

Ian Morton.

From the desk of the President

Dear members,

Congratulations to all competitors, our volunteer referees, marshals and officials for taking part in and running the highly successful summer series of Road Races, Criteriums, Time Trials and Track Races. What a fiesta of cycling.

Our last Criterium was held Tuesday last week and saw some 85 participants competing and officiating in this always exciting race format. The last summer-series Sunday morning road race saw about the same number turn out in perfect conditions today with A, B, C and D grades riding a double distance race of 92 kilometres out Uriarra way. The extra distance caught may out with lots of DNFs as we struggle to build extra endurance in the legs - too used to those short Criterium events.

Special mention must surely go to Jan Khoeler finishing on top of four out of twelve D Grade competitors and just under six minutes shy of C Grade's winning time. A great effort for this evergreen rider.

Look out for next week’s road race - a preamble to the winter series on Saturday afternoon and another long race format!

The track season has also concluded in an historic last event, in all likelihood, at the old Queanbeyan track with the long awaited 'arrival' of the upgraded Narrabundah track to be the venue for the 2014-15 series. Special thanks to our Track Coordinator Graeme O'Neill who was awarded the Club's life membership at our recent AGM for his special and long term dedication to running the track program.

The big event on the horizon, 17 and 18 May, will be the Gunning Two day event. New members and especially our 'Criterium-only' racers are encouraged to give our very special 'Tour de Gunning' a try. Saturday sees a 6km prologue time trial to establish the first pecking order for grades followed by a 50 km race with two time bonus intermediate sprints plus the final sprint to the line designed to even up the ledger against the time-lords. Sunday sees a double distance (100 kms) for A to D grades with four intermediate sprints before the final line. You need to be good at mental arithmetic as well as hanging in to calculate your position in the pack as you approach the final line.

If you compete at Gunning you will have 'good legs' for the rest of the Winter series races which sees us competing on those magic winter Saturdays that only Canberra and our region can supply. They will range from warm and windless to bleak and blowy. Perfect conditions for the best Vets racing in the country. Not to mention the congenial tea and bickies which follow.

We will also look to revive the old tradition of the Sunday morning recovery ride followed by a great coffee shop session to revisit the successes and failures of the previous day’s race, a bit of gossip and chat. Stay tuned.

Cheers,

Alex O'Shea

Twitter for late changes

A reminder that the twitter tag ‘@ACTVets’ is used to advise of any late changes to the race program such as last Thursday’s Track cancellation due to wet weather.

Marshal Roster

As you are aware the club operates with a reliance on its members to contribute to the running of the various races. As such it is expected that each member should attend at least two races a year and assist by acting as a marshal. These duties are not particularly onerous and normally consist of manning a turn point or assisting at the start finish.

Unfortunately not all members have met this commitment in the past couple of years and it keeps falling on the same small number to provide assistance.

As such the Race Committee has decided to instigate a roster of members and assign them a race. Marshals assigned to the further NSW regional races can still request a payment to cover fuel costs if they undertake lead and follow car duties.

If you unable to make the date that you have been rostered the obligation is on you to find a replacement. It is recommended that you look at the roster and make your plans accordingly.

This week’s handicapping

Old

New

Peter Marshall

A

B

Reinhardt Mauch

A

B

Peter Young

B

A

Rowan McMurray

B

A

Final Track Session - Rescheduled

Last week’s final Queanbeyan Track event and BBQ was cancelled due to poor weather.

The BBQ and Trophy Presentation has been rescheduled to this Thursday (3 April) at 6.00pm.

Please note there will be no race event as we no longer have the track booked.

As many trackies as possible should attend, as we intend to discuss preferences for the 2014-15 season when we will have the refurbished Narrabundah track and Queanbeyan Park as options.

Getting Ready for Gunning

A reminder that the Gunning 2 Day is coming up on the weekend of the 17/18 May. That’s less than two months away so better get those kms into the legs to get ready.

More detail to follow as we get closer to the date.

Race Craft Masterclass

Session information

The Race Craft Masterclass session is designed as a combined skills and race simulation session and is suitable for anyone who wants to improve their race results through a better 'rider management' throughout the race.

The session will cover a broad range of skills, tactics and race scenarios, including:

How to correctly prepare for a race - mentally and physically, including warm ups and course reconnaissance.

Understanding and making the most of team tactics as a team rider and an individual racer.

Practical race nutrition, including feed zone skills.

The session will include a number of mini races to provide the opportunity to demonstrate, learn and practise these skills. This is a great way to learn but it's also great fun, especially when done with your friends and team mates so get them along as well so you can practise together.

When: Sunday 20th April 2014.

Time:9:00am and finishing at 11:00am.

Location: Stromlo Forest Park Criterium Circuit

The session is open to all CA affiliated club members and Australian Vets Cycling club members. Junior riders U15 and above are welcome but they should have good bunch riding skills as the session will include a number of 'close' riding situations.

South Pacific Championships

The South Pacific Championships are coming up at Easter at Maryborough, 18th April to 20th April, 2014 and are into their 17th year.

Note that entries close on April 4th .

These championships are age-group competitions with road races on Friday starting at 2pm, a 300m sprint race on Saturday morning, 15km Time Trial on Saturday afternoon and a criterium on Sunday morning.

Please confirm with the Race Director that you are available. If you unable to make the date that you have been rostered please find a replacement.

RACE REPORTS:

Stromlo Criterium – 25th March

The last night of the summer criterium season heralded the start of winter, with a brisk cool breeze blowing across Stromlo Forest Park.

The racing began with Lindsay, Bruce and Heather taking to the track in G grade. After 15 minutes of very polite racing, with each of them swapping off, it came down to a bunch sprint with Lindsay holding off Bruce for the win with Heather just behind Bruce.

Both A and B decided that there would be no politeness or mercy shown on the last night of racing. Right from the start in A grade the breakaways began. Prominent in the early exchanges were Mark Harris - who seemed to want to blow the race apart at every opportunity stretching the field out on a number of occasions. At the 10 minute mark after another unsuccessful attempt by Mark Harris and Brendan Byatt to get away, the race got back together and then within a lap Charlie Nicol made what turned out to be the decisive break. He blasted away from the rest of the field and saluted the judge solo comfortably ahead of the pursuing bunch. Mark Harris won the sprint for second ahead of Michael Langdon.

Like A grade, B grade featured multiple attacks, with the first 5 rider break getting away in the first 2 laps. This fast pace blew 6 riders out the back within the first 4-5 minutes. The main culprit in putting on the pain was Peter Prammer who consistently drove hard from the front of the bunch and initially got away with Simon Milnes at the 4 minute mark with Ian Potts trying to get across. The break was quickly shut down but Peter Prammer decided to attack again at the 14 minute mark and got away with Rowan McMurray. Mark Gillett lead the chase across but in the end it was Peter Young who jumped across to form a well-oiled 3 man break that worked well together. With a few minutes left Nick Boylan got away from the bunch trying to bridge across to the 3 man break but to no avail, with ultimately Peter Young leading home Rowan and Peter Prammer.

Politeness returned to both C and D grades with only a few attempts at breakaways. There was a short lived attempt at a 3 man break in C grade at about mid race but it was quickly brought back. With 4 minutes to go Russell Marston snuck up from the back of the small bunch and attacked - only to be quickly caught. With everyone playing cat and mouse on the final lap Russell again hit out on the back straight with half a lap to go but as they rounded the final corner it was bunch sprint won by Chris Kon, ahead of Tom Tokich and Tim Minehan.

D grade was only enlivened at the 7 minute mark when Bill Frost attacked up the main straight but then sat up within half a lap to save his legs for the final sprint. The sprint was comfortably won by Kelvin Alley ahead of Bob Perkins and Sean Fleming.

In E grade there were a number of attacks in an attempt to break up what was otherwise a race that began to look like a neat training ride. Liz Lowe was the main protagonist attacking at the 9 minute mark - a break that was quickly shut down within half a lap or so before going again on the back straight at the 11 minute mark, in a move that quickly strung out the field. Again, it was shut down and things returned to normal until with about 3 laps to go Jeff Culnane launched off the back of the bunch in an attempt to catch the field napping. In the end it was a bunch sprint won by James Curran ahead of Alex Sommariva and Ian Albrey.

Barb Bayliss in F grade decided to show them what an Ian Downing prepared bike could do (having had her Neil Pryde fettled by Ian earlier in the day) by sticking it to the field big time at the 12 minute mark.

Tanya Vanderputt saw Barb disappearing up the road and joined the break, as did Luke McGowan who was quickly followed by Luke Priddis. These 4 managed to stay away and when they rounded the final bottom corner and headed for home it was Tanya lighting up the track to gett the better of Adrian and Barb with Luke unfortunately being the 4th in a 4 rider break and so missing out on the podium.

A clean night of racing to round out the season. Many thanks to John Paul de Sousa and David Witham for helping with the marshalling duties (and getting the results right for Graham Hendrie to put on the web) and of course to Henry Beaverstock for getting everything ready well before anyone else was there.

Thanks for Malcolm Paterson for Race Directing.

Uriarra Homestead Graded Scratch – 30th March

The final race of the Summer season was one of the few road events that was staged and it seems as though we have all be conditioned to Crit racing as the results show.

74 eager riders turned up at Uriarra on a perfect Canberra Sunday morning - calm, sunny and altogether very pleasant. All the grades were well represented although F grade were down to 5 keen competitors.

A,B,C & D competed over 102kms while, E,F & G covered 46kms.

G grade had lost one or two of the 7 by the time they had returned to the start and the Mt MacDonald loop took its toll so that there was a lead bunch of 4 heading back to the Crossing. George Thompson, a new starter, pipped Lindsay Graham at the line with Jing Huang hanging on for 3rd.

A and B grades appeared to stay together for the first two laps but attacks, some clever strategies and a lack of conditioning for some riders saw the groups broken up by the final lap. Steve Crispin pipped Brendan Byatt on the line with Christophe Barberet a very close 3rd. A group of 5 C graders stuck together throughout with Dave Hennessey nosing ahead of Owain Tilley and Julian Valtas taking the honours. D Grade found the going tough with only a 3rd of the starters finishing 4 out of 12. On reflection I should have reduced their distance but opted for the standard of making them do the same as A,B & C. Apologies people! Jan Koehler was noticed doing a lot of work out front and, as the President has reported in his "end of season" message, her time was really something extraordinary. First place to Jan, very well done, followed Dave Rowe making a valiant return and Sean Fleming.

E and F grades stayed together pretty well until they started returning from the dreaded Mt MacDonald. Liz Lowe held off the fast finishing Mike Hayes and equally fast Alex Sommariva to claimed the prize. I did notice Mike at the back of the bunch as they passed us on several occasions - obviously pacing himself for the sprint. The compact group of 5 F graders stayed together throughout with Ian Morton showing amazing agility to nose ahead at the line for a win over Luke McGowan with Barb Bayliss getting the points for 3rd. Does Ian's liniment act like smelling salts to give him that sprinting spurt?

Many thanks to the intrepid marshals, Chris Toohey, Gary Waldron, Edward Joliffe, Chris Simpson and Claire Aubrey who stuck it out for over 3 hours at their various posts. Thanks to Graham Hendrie at the sign-in and Brad for being our First Aider. Special thanks to Henry Beaverstock for his organising, starting, timing and results.